The recoil of a gun severely interferes with the accuracy of firing at a target, particularly when using hand-held guns under rapid fire conditions, because the recoil of the gun tends to cause the muzzle to kick in a direction that depends largely upon the configuration of its stock, i.e., the wooden or metal part below the axis of the barrel. For example, a ground mobile antiaircraft or antitank gun will tend to kick up, lifting the gun carriage off the ground and thus cause it to change position in azimuth and/or elevation. Similarly, a hand-held gun, such as a pistol or rifle, will tend to kick up and often to one side, generally to the side away from the person holding the gun, making rapid semiautomatic fire at a target with accuracy of all but the first round impossible. Consequently, it is common practice to use two hands on the gun, including a pistol, but it is seldom that the person firing the gun is capable of absorbing the recoil equally in both arms, particularly a pistol, and so the gun will tend to kick to one side, even in the case of a rifle, unless held with the aid of some sturdy support to stabilize the gun barrel during recoil, not only because of the stock configuration but also because of the unsymmetrical disposition of the person's body relative to the gun. In an automatic weapon, this recoil problem is more severe since the barrel will kick incrementally with each firing cycle causing the gun to "walk" up and away from the target.
To overcome this recoil problem, attempts have been made for many years to provide a muzzle brake having an expansion chamber with a front annular surface or shoulder that is orthogonal to the muzzle axis to reverse the direction of expanding propellant gases and venting the gases through ports inclined rearwardly and outwardly as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,212,683, and possibly with similar ports ahead of the recoil controlling ports but inclined forwardly and upwardly to exhaust some expanding gases before they are reversed in direction to deflect propellant gases from ports that are reversed in direction away from the person firing the gun, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,212,684, '685 and '686. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,953,972, 4,811,648 and 4,852,460.
More complex arrangements have been developed for muzzle brakes in an attempt to stabilize the muzzle of a firearm and minimize the blast of reversed propellant gases against the person firing the gun, such as a muzzle brake having two expansion chambers with ports, a first expansion chamber with forwardly and upwardly directed ports and a second larger expansion chamber with a conical forward port at the front end for deflecting gases up through large upwardly directed slots orthogonal to the muzzle axis, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,942. Another complex arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,396 comprising a series of tapered sections, each section having rings (annular rows) with ports having their axes orthogonal to the muzzle axis. U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,812 discloses a similar arrangement of multiple rings of ports but without the series of tapered sections. Instead, that arrangement relies upon ports in each ring (annular row) to form baffles that reduce recoil by directing propellant gases radially out through the ports.
An even more complex arrangement comprises a "flash hider" having a threaded bore that accepts the gun barrel at one end and a muzzle brake at the other. The end of the muzzle brake is screwed into the "flash hider" leaving a cavity between it and the gun muzzle, thus providing a small expansion chamber the forward end of which is an annular surface orthogonal to the muzzle axis. Five "retrojet channels" (ports) through the wall of the "flash hider" are inclined upwardly and rearwardly to reduce recoil and inhibit transverse movement of the gun muzzle, one at the top in a vertical plane, one on either side of the top, one in a plane 60.degree. from the vertical, and another one on either side of the top one in a plane 120.degree. from the vertical. The net effect of all retrojet channels at the rear of the muzzle brake is a rearwardly and downwardly directed force. In addition to that, the muzzle brake also has a "void" which forms a larger expansion chamber with a sloped face within the flash hider to direct expanding gases upwardly and rearwardly through elongated slots to counteract the natural tendency of the gun muzzle to kick upwardly and laterally.
Yet another prior-art arrangement shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,615 comprises a gun barrel shroud having chamber in front of the gun muzzle with an inner diameter equal to the outer diameter of the gun barrel. The forward end of the chamber is capped by a disc having an exit orifice for the gun projectile to force expanding propellant gases to escape close to the capping disc through upwardly and rearwardly slanted (or slightly forwardly slanted) slots. Such an arrangement would be more suitable for guns of small caliber that exhibit less recoil but which still require some force to compensate the tendency of the gun to "walk" up under rapid firing conditions.
An objective of this invention is to provide an improved arrangement for a muzzle brake suitable for firearms of large and small caliber that not only neutralizes the tendency of the muzzle to kick back but also neutralizes any recoil forces that may cause the gun muzzle to kick upwardly and laterally.